Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in its bid to provide hassle-free ration to the people will hand over temporary coupons which will enable people to collect ration even if they do not have ration cards. More than 2.5 lakh ration cards are yet to reach the citizens due to delay in postal despatch. They had applied for ration cards, the records of which are available with the state Food department. Mayor Firhad Hakim held a meeting with state Food and Supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick at Khadya Bhavan on Tuesday to sort out this issue. "We will be preparing a borough wise list of these people who have not yet received their cards due to delay in postal delivery and will hand over the list to the respective borough offices. They latter will be handing over the coupons. We are hopeful that the coupons will be handed over by April 10, following which these 2.5 lakh citizens will get their ration," Hakim said. The Mamata Banerjee government will offer free food grains and ration under the Public Distribution System for the next six months from April 1 to 7.86 lakh people in the state in the wake of the present COVID-19 situation. "I have appealed to the beneficiaries that everyone who has ration cards or has already applied will get ration. They should not unnecessarily crowd the shop on the same day and stand in queue maintaining a safe distance. The shops are open seven days a week and we have rice stock that will last till July," said Mallick. There are around 17 lakh ration cards across the state that has not yet delivered due to postal issues. "The district magistrates have been asked to hand over coupons to the beneficiaries through the BDOs of the respective blocks so that they can avail ration even if they do not have ration cards. The process will take some days but no single people in the state will be deprived of their due food grains," Mallick added. Every beneficiary will be handed over their due ration of the month in a single day and the ration dealers have sought cooperation from the people in this matter.

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